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The Athletics took on the San Francisco Giants in the second game of this three-game interleague series on a breezy summer night in The City by the Bay”.

It looked like Max Muncy’s eighth inning home run would be enough to win this pitching duel. However, the A’s beleaguered bullpen had a final say, blowing its sixth save of June as the Giants rallied with two home runs in the ninth inning for the 2-1 series clinching victory. Not only did the A’s lose a fourth straight game, but they now could be without shortstop Jacob Wilson for another extended period of time.

Pitching Duel

Both pitchers—Giants right-hander Tyler Mahle and A’s left-hander Gage Jump—got off to strong starts, working scoreless first two innings. Jump struck out the side in his first inning of work before stranding a runner at second base in the next inning.

In the bottom of the third, A’s first baseman Nick Kurtz made a nice diving catch to rob Giants’ third baseman Matt Chapman of a base hit. Kurtz then stepped on the bag to complete the unassisted, inning-ending double play.

A’s First Scoring Chance

A’s shortstop Jacob Wilson recorded his team’s first hit off Mahle with a one-out single in the fifth inning. Mahle then walked designated hitter Joey Meneses.

Right fielder Lawrence Butler crushed a ball right to the Giants second baseman Casey Schmitt, who made the catch for the second out. He tried doubling off Wilson at second base, but his throw was wild. Wilson tried scoring on the errant throw, but he was thrown out at home and appeared to hurt himself trying to evade the tag. That was a super aggressive send, especially considering that Wilson is not the fastest runner. He would have been better served staying at third to give the next batter a chance to get a two-out RBI hit.

Jump Dominant Again

Jump pitched exceptionally well once again. He completed five scoreless innings, only allowing three hits and one walk, while accumulating a career-high nine strikeouts. Jump likely would have gone deeper into the game had the Giants not fouled off 30 pitches against the A’s young left-hander. According to A’s MLB.com reporter Martin Gallegos, Jump became the third A’s pitcher in the Integration Era (since 1947) to not allow a home run in their first six career starts, joining Tim Conroy (1978-82) and Jim Archer (1961).

Kurtz Fails to Come Through

With two outs in the sixth, Bolte crushed a double for the A’s first extra-base hit of the evening. That was the final batter Mahle faced. The Giants turned to left-hander Sam Hentges to face Kurtz. Mahle pitched well in his first start off the injured list, holding the A’s scoreless over 5 2/3 innings, striking out four and inducing six groundouts and three fly outs.

Kurtz swung at the first pitch and drove a deep fly ball to center that died at the warning track where center fielder Jonah Cox made the catch. That was the second straight inning in which the A’s just fell short of breaking the deadlock in this pitching duel.

Maximum Muncy!

A’s relievers Justin Sterner and Hogan Harris kept the game scoreless, each tossing a scoreless inning of relief.

With two outs in the top of the eighth inning, A’s third baseman Max Muncy put his team ahead with his fifth home run of the season, a 416-foot shot to center field off Giants reliever Dylan Smith. The solo homer gave the Athletics a 1-0 late lead.

Medina Holds the Lead

In front for the first time tonight, hard-throwing right-hander Luis Medina entered out of the A’s bullpen to pitch the bottom of eighth, hoping to preserve the visitors slim lead. He issued walks to two of the first three batters he faced, with Cox’s sacrifice bunt between them. Medina escaped the jam unscathed by striking out San Francisco’s first baseman Bryce Eldridge and Schmitt.

A’s Rally Fizzles Out

Seeking some insurance runs, Bolte was hit by Smith’s first pitch of the ninth inning. The Giants promptly brought in left-hander Erik Miller to face the “Big Amish”. With one out, Bolte stole second, his ninth stolen base of the season.

The A’s squandered a chance to add a prime insurance opportunity. Left fielder Tyler Soderstrom popped out and then Giants right fielder Jung Hoo Lee took an RBI hit away from backup catcher Jonah Heim, who was pinch-hitting for Wilson. Heim entered the game because the A’s shortstop’s left shoulder was bothering him so much that he could not swing the bat at that moment.

A’s Blow Another Save

Heim stayed in the game to play third base, a position he had never played before.

That did not matter as Athletics reliever Elvis Alvarado quickly blew the save opportunity. San Francisco’s designated hitter Rafeal Devers led off the bottom of the ninth with a game-tying solo home run to center field, his 12th of the season.

The Giants did not want to play extra innings. Alvarado hung a slider in the middle of the plate which left fielder Victor Bericoto crushed for a 445 foot walk-off home run to send Giants fans home happy and leave A’s players and fans dejected.

What looked to be the team’s biggest weakness entering this season has indeed proved their biggest barrier to winning more games. The Athletics still do not have anyone consistently trustworthy at the back of their bullpen. Alvarado’s recent success seems to be wearing off, while the team for some reason designated one of their best performing relievers Joel Kuhnel for assignment earlier this month.

Following this crushing defeat, the Athletics will look to avoid the sweep tomorrow afternoon. Left-hander Jeffrey Springs will take the mound seeking to stop his team’s bleeding and earn his first win since April. He will be opposed by right-hander Landen Roupp, who is 5-7 with a 4.15 ERA through his first 15 starts of the season.

Where has this Tyler Mahle been?

The woeful Giants walked off the A’s, 2-1, with two homers in the ninth, but don’t let that distract you from the biggest development of a foggy Wednesday evening at Oracle Park.

Mahle looked like a totally different pitcher than the one that owned a 1-7 record and 6.04 ERA before a monthlong stint on the injured list with a hamstring strain. Even operating on a pitch limit in his first start back, Mahle needed only 70 to stymie the A’s for 5 ⅔ scoreless innings.

He didn’t allow a hit until the fourth inning, limited the A’s to two total and only put on two other batters via bases on balls. He found the strike zone 44 times, a good sign after throwing strikes on only 33 of his 63 pitches in his one rehab start while walking five.

Before the game, manager Tony Vitello singled out two keys to turning Mahle’s suboptimal start to his Giants tenure around upon his return to the starting rotation.

No.1 Throwing strikes.

No. 2 Getting healthy.

A bit of evidence for the latter: Mahle’s average fastball velocity of 93.2 mph, up 1.2 notches from before the injury,

That was still only enough to match A’s starter Gage Jump, who fanned nine Giants and stranded three hits and a walk over five scoreless innings. Jung Hoo Lee was responsible for two of the Giants’ four hits through eight innings and about their only competitive at-bats, as well as a sensational catch crashing into the chainlink fencing in right field to end the top of the ninth.

The catch proved critical, as it came with runners on and likely prevented the A’s from padding what was a 1-0 lead. That kept the Giants within two swings going into the bottom half.

Rafael Devers delivered one to begin the inning against Elvis Alvarado, and Victor Bericoto provided the second and the walk off blast. Both players knew theirs were gone off the bat.

Devers admired his 416-foot blast to center, but it was no match for Bericoto’s: a 445-foot tank that left his bat at 108.7 mph. Entering the inning, the Giants had hit one ball at 100 mph.

The game remained scoreless into eighth, when Max Muncy squared up an 0-1 fastball from reliever Dylan Smith and knew it was gone as soon as it left his bat at 106.7 mph.

Mahle benefitted from a rollercoaster of a play that ended up in the final out of the fifth being made at home plate to keep the score tied at zero.

The A’s had two on with one out in the inning when Lawrence Butler sent a line drive to second baseman Casey Schmitt. He nabbed it for the second out. But, in an attempt to double up the runner at second, fired wide past the glove of Willy Adames and into left field foul territory.

Jacob Wilson, who was at second, easily made it to third and made the turn home. Awaiting him was the throw from Bericoto, clocked at 93 mph. Wilson attempted to dance around the tag of Eric Haase but wasn’t able to evade him.

What it means

The Giants are finally enjoying some stability in their starting rotation, though it remains to be seen how long it lasts. Mahle’s outing followed back-to-back starts of eight innings apiece from Logan Webb and Robbie Ray, the first time they’ve gotten even six innings from their starters in consecutive games since May 16-17.

If Mahle and Ray keep pitching like this, they will certainly draw interest from teams at the approaching trade deadline. Both starters’ contracts expire after this season, making them obvious candidates to move in the Giants’ impending selloff.

Who’s hot

Lee continued to climb the National League batting leaderboard with two more hits, raising his average to .335. Only the Marlins’ Otto Lopez (.340) is above him.

Lee’s first knock was a line drive double that left his bat at 102.7 mph. He made an out despite hitting the ball just about as hard his second time up, but it all evened out as he legged out a soft hopper up the middle that the shortstop Wilson lost on the transfer for an infield single.

Before the game, Vitello made the case for Lee’s All-Star candidacy. He was not among the top 10 vote-getters among NL outfielders in the latest update released Monday.

“It’s a fans’ game, and I don’t know who’s more fun to watch — [Luis] Arraez or Jungy — but the fan, crowd noise speaks for itself,” Vitello said. “Those guys on both sides of the ball have proven All-Star caliber defense, All-Star caliber offense. … Voting impacts it too, so I guess that’s my small rallying cry.”

Who’s not

The top five spots in the Giants’ lineup were 0-for-17 until Devers tied things up with his homer in the ninth as they struggled to crack the A’s deceptive left-handed starter.

Jump’s dominance helped bring an end to Casey Schmitt’s streak of seven straight multihit games. He would have tied the franchise record with one more but was among the hitless top of the order, including an inning-ending strikeout with two on in the eighth.

It has been a hard time for the Giants to get on the scoreboard much at all since they left Atlanta. They were held to three runs or fewer for the fifth straight game.

Up next

Landen Roupp will look to continue the stretch of strong starting pitching as the Giants look to secure only their first three-game sweep of the season in the series finale set for Thursday at 12:45 p.m.

Roupp is 0-6 with a 5.40 ERA in nine starts since his last win, April 26.

Marcus Semien was brought over to the Mets more for his glove than his bat, but it was his defensive lapses that hurt his team in the second game of New York's doubleheader with the Cubs.

The Mets had six errors -- not to count the number of misplays that were not errors -- in Wednesday night's loss and Semien was charged with two of them. 

The first came in the fourth when he made an errant throw that allowed the Cubs to get runners on the corners with no outs. Chicago would score three runs in that inning.

Semien's second error was a pop-up that he couldn't come down with in the seventh. That one did not cost the Mets any runs, but it was a troubling sight for the 14-year veteran.

The veteran second baseman's two errors alone matched his season total in 127 games a season ago with the Texas Rangers -- a year he won his second Gold Glove award. He's now up to six on the season, all coming in the last 33 games.

When asked what the cause of the defensive errors was, Semien could only point to the attention to detail when playing.

"It’s always going to be attention to detail with defense," he explained. "First step was not great on the first [error]. Seems like when I’m trying to pick the ball up and rush, the throw isn’t good. I feel like it’s a play that I could have saved and got the out and I didn’t. Those ones hurt. 

"Pop-up, same thing, drifted to the ball. The wind was a little funky out there, and just took my eyes off the ball. Those are plays that I want to make, plays that I want to make tomorrow to help us win."

President of baseball operations David Stearns swapped Brandon Nimmo for Semien this offseason to shore up the infield defense. Semien has regressed in that area this season, and is having arguably the worst offensive year of his career. Entering Thursday, Semien will have career worsts in batting (.216), slugging (.348) and OPS (.623). 

Going 1-for-11 with three strikeouts in the first three games of the series with the Cubs didn't help those numbers.

"Today was just a tough day. A tough day all the way around," Semien said. "We didn’t play well for two games. It became frustrating after game one. We wanted to come out to play well in game two and it didn’t happen. That’s mostly what I’m thinking about. Performing way under par today and just want to get back here tomorrow, and play better baseball and get a win."

Wednesday's performance could not have come at a worse time for Semien and the Mets. After being swept by the Cubs in the doubleheader, New York's losing streak is now at five and they are 12 games under .500, a season-low mark for the season.